Ray Ploshansky

Ray is the acerbic thirty-something who manages the coffee shop where Shoshanna works, older than the rest of the group and visibly unimpressed by most of it. Cynical, well-read, and quick to argue, he trades in blunt honesty nobody asked for, even as he starts up an unlikely relationship with Shoshanna.

Alex Karpovsky plays him as a man permanently exasperated by people younger and softer than himself, which makes him the show's built-in reality check — someone who will actually say the harsh, true thing while everyone else performs. The comedy comes from how much he clearly cares underneath the contempt.